Hi, I'm a developer for Rockbox, an open-source firmware for mp3 players, and I ordered an YP-S3. I'm looking into porting Rockbox to this player, it has the same kind of system-on-chip (S5L8700) that is in a couple of other players that are currently also under investigation for a Rockbox port (e.g. Meizu M3/M6, possibly Ipod Nano 2G).

Doing a Rockbox port requires me to put my own compiled firmware on it which comes with the risk of accidentally making it inoperable (sometimes called "bricked"). Does anyone know if this player has some kind of recovery mode? For example some kind of key combo that can be held during boot that allows it to reset the firmware, or that allows to send a recovery firmware via USB (e.g. DFU - device firmware update mode)?

lebellium

07-18-2009 01:31 PM

That's a good idea.
Just a pity you did not order a P2 or a P3. It's more interesting than a S3.
Some people have begun a rockbox port for P2 but nothing operational for the moment.

Before trying to port rockbox on the S3, you have to check indeed if recovery softwares work with the S3.

I don't think that telechips driver is going to work very well on the S5L8700 since they're different chips made by different companies, but I guess it couldn't hurt to try.

bertrik

07-18-2009 02:26 PM

I consider the chance that a tool for the TCC will work on a S5L8700 quite small, but I'll have a try once I receive my YP-S3. Otherwise it would be great to find such a tool specifically for the YP-S3.

bertrik

07-23-2009 04:23 PM

I received my YP-S3 today and played a bit with it. I've been able to upgrade it to 1.12eu firmware and convert it to MSC mode (RDS still works).

I noticed a couple of things:
* it is possible to activate an USB DFU (device firmware upgrade) mode by holding the power button while doing a hard reset with a pin through the hole in the back of the player. The USB vendor/product id in this mode is exactly the same as the USB VID/PID of the Meizu M6SL in DFU mode.
* using Linux, you see two drives in MSC mode. The first drive seems to show some interesting files (debug stuff?) in the SYSTEM folder. The second drive seems to contain all kinds of low-level configuration/setting files.
* when doing a hard reset by pushing a pin into the reset hole, it says "Checking firmware". I'm curious about what it would do if the firmware would not be OK.
* my guess is that booting upto the big S3 logo is done by some primary bootloader and that the flashing S3 logo is done by some secondary loader (or maybe the main firmware itself).

update: it seems the meizu_dfu utility from rockbox can indeed talk with the player in this mode and can upload a DFU upgrader program. This should allow us to run simple test programs (e.g. a rockbox bootloader) from RAM.

ok, good job :)
I hope you'll able to port rockbox onto the S3!
Still doesn't work for YH-820/920 and P2 so it would be the first rockboxed Samsung!

bertrik

07-29-2009 04:59 PM

Update:

I am now able to run some initial Rockbox code on this player. I'm using the DFU mode for this, this allows you to send some code to run from internal RAM. Since the code only gets copied to RAM, it's a quite safe method of experimenting with nearly zero risk of bricking the player. I am able to control the display (showing a little rockbox logo and some debug texts), backlight, radio, button LEDs, battery charger and read the hold/power switch, real-time clock, USB and battery voltage. This is nowhere near a state where I can play mp3's but it's a good start.

A big stumbling block to further development will be access to the filesystem on the NAND flash, because the original firmware uses a proprietary software layer to read/write from it. Possibly I can reuse code from the openiboot project for this. Also I can't seem to get any response yet from the touch key controller, the Melfas MCS-3080, there seems to be basically no documentation on this chip.

Riversp

08-01-2009 02:45 PM

I have a YP S3 and it would be great having Rockbox on it. Keep it up :)

I am looking forward :D Thank you

NTB

08-03-2009 11:15 AM

If rockbox will work on S3 could it work also on S5? If not than is anybody trying to get it work on s5?

bertrik

08-03-2009 12:47 PM

I think that once the S3 is supported (which may take a long time, if at all), the S5 should not be very hard because I suspect they are very much alike w.r.t. hardware. I don't know anybody working on the S5.

ketah23

08-11-2009 06:15 AM

i'll be waiting for this i really want rockbox hope it will work with my s3 best buy firmware..

Yrrehc

08-16-2009 04:53 AM

Roxbox It's a great mod!!
S3 is a nice, small and good sound player but has a limited audio formats support (doesn't support lossless) roxbox will resolve this limit...

Thank you bertrik... and good work;)

sorry for my bad English I'm Italian

ketah23

08-27-2009 07:14 AM

is there any updates on this?...

Yrrehc

12-12-2009 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ketah23
(Post 388290)

is there any updates on this?...

up:)

We want Roxbox on S3!!!! :D

lu1648

12-21-2009 06:02 AM

UP!!!
I can't wait anymore!!! Please Please Please port it to S3

SpaceStranger

05-09-2011 06:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bertrik
(Post 379084)

Update:
I am now able to run some initial Rockbox code on this player. I'm using the DFU mode for this, this allows you to send some code to run from internal RAM. Since the code only gets copied to RAM, it's a quite safe method of experimenting with nearly zero risk of bricking the player. I am able to control the display (showing a little rockbox logo and some debug texts), backlight, radio, button LEDs, battery charger and read the hold/power switch, real-time clock, USB and battery voltage. This is nowhere near a state where I can play mp3's but it's a good start.

A big stumbling block to further development will be access to the filesystem on the NAND flash, because the original firmware uses a proprietary software layer to read/write from it. Possibly I can reuse code from the openiboot project for this. Also I can't seem to get any response yet from the touch key controller, the Melfas MCS-3080, there seems to be basically no documentation on this chip.

Hello! Can you please describe more detailed, how to run the test program on this player? I want to try this because i have a broken S3QR player with "works, but white screen" issue. I'd try to test it before disassembling it since i suspect it's a firmware problem. Any DFU drivers i tried do not work..